1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electrical connector technology and more particularly, to a push-pull fiber optic connector assembly, which comprises a fiber optic connector holding the fiber core of a fiber optic cable in a fiber ferrule inside a connector housing and having a latch for locking the connector housing to a fiber optic adapter, and an operating handle having a sliding cap located at the front side and coupled to the connector housing and a push member for biasing the latch to unlock the connector housing of the fiber optic connector from the fiber optic adapter when the user pulls the handle shaft of the operating handle backwards.
2. Description of the Related Art
With rapid development of modern communications technology and the Internet, data centers and telecommunications providers are trying hard to provide relative equipment having the characteristics of high density, high transmission speed, high capacity and high intelligence. In order to meet the demands for faster data transmission speed, smaller footprint and lower energy consumption, the physical infrastructure of cabling system has been receiving more attention than ever before. Cable and optical fiber transmission systems are two important transmission media in a data center cabling system. When compared with a cable transmission system, an optical fiber transmission system has the advantages of wider bandwidth, faster transmission speed, longer transmission distance, thinner dimension, stronger anti-electromagnetic interference and better confidentiality. Optical fiber transmission system is bound to become the hottest trend in the future.
Further, a variety of fiber optic connectors are commercially available, but SC and LC connectors are the most common types of connectors on the market. An LC duplex connector incorporates two round ceramic ferrules with outer diameters of 1.25 mm and a duplex pitch of 6.25 mm. Two simplex LC connectors can be joined to create one duplex LC connector. Thus, LC type fiber optic connector not only has the advantage of dimensional and alignment precision, but also provides simplex/duplex transmission application flexibility. When connecting multiple fiber optic connectors together, a fiber optic adapter is generally used for connecting the rear connections of the fiber optic connectors. In application, ceramic or copper fiber ferrules are used to protect fiber cores of fiber optic cables, minimizing optical signal transmission loss.
FIGS. 11 and 12 illustrate a conventional LC type fiber optic connector. As illustrated, this design of fiber optic connector A comprises a front housing A1, a latch A11 obliquely backwardly extended from the top wall of the front housing A1, a fiber ferrule A2 mounted in the front housing A1, a compression spring (not shown) mounted around a PTFE tube (not shown) at the rear side of the fiber ferrule A2, a rear housing A3 connected to the rear side of the front housing A1, a fiber optic cable A4 mounted in the rear housing A3 with the fiber core thereof inserted into the fiber ferrule A2, and a press plate A31 obliquely forwardly extended from the top wall of the rear housing A3. In installation, the front housing A1 of the fiber optic connector A is inserted into one connector chamber B2 in an adapter housing B1 of a fiber optic adapter B. When inserting the front housing A1 into one connector chamber B2, the latch A11 is forced by the inner top wall of the connector chamber B2 to curve downwards, and thus, the front housing A1 can be smoothly inserted into the connector chamber B2 to the position where the latch A11 is forced into engagement with a retaining groove B21 in the connector chamber B2 to lock the fiber optic connector A to the fiber optic adapter B. On the contrary, when wishing to remove the fiber optic connector A from the fiber optic adapter B, the user can press the press plate A31 to curve the latch A11 downwards and to further disengage the latch A11 from the retaining groove B21, thereby unlocking fiber optic connector A from the fiber optic adapter B. However, according to this prior art design, the direction to press the latch A11 of the fiber optic connector A and the direction to pull the fiber optic connector A out of the fiber optic adapter B are different. Further, in actual application it is quite inconvenient to access the fingers to the press plate A31 of the fiber optic connector A in a fiber optic connector array, complicating fiber optic connector mounting and dismounting operations.
In order to satisfy the requirements for high density and high efficiency installation, a supplementary tool C can be used for quick removal of the fiber optic connector A from the fiber optic adapter B. The supplementary tool C comprises a handle C1, and a lever C2 perpendicularly extended from one end of the handle C1. In application, attach the rear end of the handle C1 to the fiber optic cable A4, and then insert the lever C2 into the space inside the connector chamber B2 around the latch A11, and then pull the handle C1 backwards to force the lever C2 downwardly against the latch A11 and to further disengage the latch A11 from the retaining groove B21 in the connector chamber B2, unlocking the fiber optic connector A from the fiber optic adapter B and for allowing the fiber optic connector A to be moved backwardly with the supplementary tool C out of the fiber optic adapter B. However, it takes time to remove the fiber optic connector A out of the fiber optic adapter B using the supplementary tool C. This operation procedure is still not very convenient. When mounting or dismounting a large number of fiber optic connectors A, the maintenance and replacement time will be largely increased. Thus, the use of this design of supplementary tool is still not satisfactory.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a fiber optic connector design that facilitates mounting and dismounting with less effort.